News Briefs

May 01, 2008 |

• Claim of found Freedom Tower blueprints sparks probe.Officials at the Port Authority of New York ordered an internal investigation after a homeless man claimed to have discovered blueprints for the Freedom Tower in a trashcan in Greenwich Village. If proven to be authentic, the discovery of the 150-page “secure” document would be considered a significant security breach, according to a Newsday report.

• California school district’s architect operated without a license. For the past decade, the Palo Alto Unified School District has employed an architect whose license had been revoked for designing an elementary school that was condemned as unsafe and subsequently demolished. Darrell James Jackson worked as a lead project manager on more than $40 million worth of Palo Alto school projects during the six years after his license was revoked in 1999, according to the Palo Alto Daily News.

• Beijing to shut down factories during Olympics. Beijing will implement a series of temporary measures to stop construction and close heavy industries, all aimed at cleaning the city’s notoriously polluted air when the Olympics begin in August. All digging and pouring of concrete on construction sites will be suspended from July 20 to September 20, Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau said.

• California utility launches world’s largest solar power installation program.Southern California Edison is set to begin the world’s largest solar cell installation program, starting with solar cells on a 607,000-sf roof leased from distribution center giant ProLogis. The public utility wants to cover 125 commercial buildings—65 million sf of rooftops—with photovoltaic panels in the next five years and hopes to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 162,000 homes.